


Under Fire

by Accal1a



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF Alec Lightwood, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Hostage Situations, M/M, SO MUCH FLUFF, Threats of Violence, Whump, squishy cheeks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-05-07 16:10:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14674665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Accal1a/pseuds/Accal1a
Summary: Military!Alec, Diplomat!Magnus are embroiled in a hostage situation at an embassy. Cue Alec being a BAMF and trying to save everybody, and Magnus using his negotiating skills to try to save everybody.Between them, can they get them, and everybody else, out alive?Written forSpring Fling 2018.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This couldn't have been done without the brilliant [TeachMePatience](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeachMePatience/) who is always there with a smile, a sass and a red pen.

Captain Alec Lightwood was bored, but he was a patriot. So he was following his orders, even if his orders included being posted at an off the beaten path embassy in a stupid country that really didn't need an embassy to the US. As far as he knew the US had never conducted an operation here, and he was pretty sure that if you did a straw poll of a hundred Americans, very few would know the country even existed.

He wondered whether he'd done anything to have earnt this posting, but he knew that his service record was exemplary, so he doubted it. Maybe they just wanted him to have a holiday. After three tours, two in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, they probably thought he needed a break. The thing was though, he didn't _want_ a break. He loved serving his country. He loved the camaraderie of being in a squad with like-minded men. He liked being where the action was. He did _not_ like standing in a hallway in a backwards embassy, occasionally hearing snatches of incredibly tedious meetings between very dull diplomats.

Except on this Spring day, something changed.

The two front doors were pulled open by a man who literally made his breath catch in his chest. The man was dressed in an impeccable purple suit which Alec thought might have looked ridiculous on someone else, but this man, who Alec noticed was wearing make-up as he got closer, wore it as if he was born to.

The man breezed past Alec, talking to one of his aides, who was frantically writing notes. Just as he got level with where Alec was standing at ease, the new man, a diplomat he assumed, winked at him.

Alec's breath caught in his throat.

_This was bad, this was so very bad_ _._

_~~~_

For the rest of the week, Alec listened to a lot of boring meetings, but they were all that much better for the fact that he had a handsome diplomat to stare at throughout. During meeting number 'I've lost count, I couldn't care less, this is the worst posting I've ever had', Magnus caught him staring. He wanted to look away, wanted to cough and unfocus his eyes and pretend he hadn't been looking at the man. He wanted to scratch the back of his head and break eye contact, but he couldn't. Magnus had the kind of eyes that you could get lost in for days. They were a shade of brown that Alec couldn't quite put his finger on. After second two, a point where it really was getting ridiculous that they were still staring at each other across a crowded room, he suddenly realised there were a lot of things about Magnus that he'd like to put his fingers on.

When Magnus realised that the Marine stationed just inside the meeting room was staring, he dropped a surreptitious wink. It almost looked like a blink, you'd had to have been looking at him to notice that it wasn't. When he saw the other man's lips quirk up into a tiny smile before dropping his head in a blush, Magnus knew that he was in trouble. He had to make a concerted effort to draw his thoughts back from where they'd gone. He was picturing pushing Alec up against a wall, their shirts half off as they kissed with passion.

Magnus vaguely thought he heard someone talking to him, but he couldn't make his brain switch on to whoever it was. All he could think of was the way the BDUs did nothing to hide Captain Lightwood's muscles, and how he imagined what they would feel like under his fingers.

He suddenly realised everyone in the room was looking at him, and from the looks on their faces they had probably been looking at him for a while.

“I'm so sorry, what were you saying?”

~~~  
  
On day number eight (and no, they weren't counting, that would be ridiculous), Magnus held the door open for Alec when he got to the meeting room.

When Alec reached to hold onto the door himself, Magnus slid his hand down slightly to touch Alec's. It could be shrugged off as an accident if nothing came of it. They never even needed to mention it; but when Magnus looked up into the face that he had mapped thousands of times in his head, he saw faint surprise in the other man, but no revulsion or fear.

Alec swore his heart skipped a beat when Magnus touched him, and he knew that he didn't school his features quickly enough when Magnus looked at him. The moment was over as soon as it began, and later on that night he would wonder whether he'd read too much into it, whether it had even happened at all.

~~~  
  
About a week later, Magnus crashed into the meeting room, only barely managing to get through the door without dropping the seemingly endless stack of folders in his hand.

Alec rushed over from where he was standing in his position on the other side of the room to take over half of the multi-coloured folders. Somehow the fact that Magnus had decided to colour code his work didn't surprise him in the slightest. It seemed to fit his personality down to a tee.

Magnus smiled up at his saviour gratefully, and when Alec put the folders he was carrying down and pulled out Magnus' chair for him, he thought his brain might have short-circuited a bit. The man did it without guile and Magnus found himself once more re-evaluating the marine. He had helped without thought because he had genuinely _wanted_ to help, which was a rare quality.

~~~  
  
Alec had been standing at ease in the corner of the room for over an hour and he could tell that he was starting to glaze over with boredom. Magnus and a visiting diplomat had been having the same conversation for quite some time. Alec wasn't entirely sure they were even saying different words each time they went round and round. He'd wanted to interject so many times, but he wasn't sure that he was really allowed to.

Magnus was starting to get frustrated with the circular conversation and if it wasn't for the brief glances towards the very handsome marine in the corner, he thought he would have jacked the meeting in a long time ago. That, or he would have 'accidentally' thrown tea at the imbecile in front of him, causing a minor diplomatic incident that he could pass off as mere clumsiness.

Alec's boredom was only staved off by watching how deftly Magnus manoeuvred around the situation, how easily he spoke, how knowledgeable he was about the subject matter, how damn hot he looked in that suit... _no._ He couldn't think about that.

“What do you think, Captain Lightwood?” Magnus asked, directing his gaze towards the corner and the delicious marine standing in it.

“Me?” Alec said dumbly and then mentally kicked himself for sounding so ridiculous.

“Yes, of course,” Magnus replied, gesturing with his hand, “you have a keen military mind and you've been guarding this embassy, and I'm sure others in your career. You know the ins and outs of this place, so what do you think? What are the security details we are missing here? What do we need to work on?”

Alec's training kicked in almost immediately and he started to speak with surety. As he talked, he could hear his voice pull on an authoritative tone, and he saw the way Magnus couldn't stop staring at him. He had to employ considerable restraint not to smile. That wasn’t the priority here.

Magnus couldn't take his eyes off the marine. Gone was the at ease soldier with the bored look on his face. Here was a solider at attention imparting knowledge that he had gained over many years. By the time that he had finished, there was only a brief ten minute conversation between him and the other diplomat where the security details were hammered out. He should have asked Alec sooner what he thought they should do. He could have been elsewhere spending a break curled up with a good book and trying valiantly (and failing) not to daydream about the man in uniform several floors below him.

When the meeting was over, Magnus walked past Alec, who was always the last to leave.

“It's so nice to see this embassy takes security seriously. I feel _so much_ safer with a big strong Marine in the room.” He said, then lowered his voice and taking the playful tone out of it, “thank you, Captain Lightwood.”

“Alec.” The other man replied immediately.

Magnus raised his eyebrows at the familiarity. He knew that the man wasn't supposed to do that.

“Nice to meet you Alec, I'm Magnus.” He said, smiling as he left the room, because he wasn't allowed to do that either.  
  
~~~  
  
Alec had never liked Diplomat Marshall. He was pompous, loud and crude. Since Magnus had arrived, the man seemed to have got worse. Whether it was because he hated the way Magnus dressed, hated the way he had genuinely charmed everyone he met, or whether he hated that Magnus was competent at his job without constantly needing validation, Alec wasn't sure.

He knew that Magnus could hold his own in negotiations, had heard him take down some truly horrendous ambassadors who had mistaken his youth for incompetence. He still felt fiercely protective of him anyway. He was trying really hard not to think of exactly why that was.

Magnus had met people like Diplomat Marshall before, knew that they assumed he was useless at his job because he didn't dress how they _thought_ a diplomat should dress, didn't speak how a diplomat would speak; but he knew his worth and he'd taken down people far more impressive than this man before.

When Diplomat Marshall started to speak over Magnus for the fourth time in as many minutes, Magnus was ready to succinctly take him down when he instead heard the voice that he definitely didn't dream about speak instead.

“I think Diplomat Bane was talking, _Cedric.”_

Magnus looked up as the other diplomat was spluttering and smiled softly over his own tea cup as he saw Alec wink quickly at him.

~~~  
  
Alec had barely slept.

All he could think of was the playful way that Magnus had dropped a comment as he had left yesterday's meeting after he had broken all protocol and been rude to the other diplomat. He was so fed up with the man being impolite to Magnus he had done it without thinking, but he would be unsurprised if he got a write up for it. It would be the first one of his entire career, and he found himself not caring one bit. Somehow sticking up for Magnus was as easy as breathing and he found that assessing the situation over and over, he would have done it again. That complicated things.

Magnus dropping a comment on the way out had cemented the burgeoning feelings that he had so valiantly been pushing down. Being called someone's 'knight in shining armour' would have sounded silly falling from someone else's lips, but for some reason coming from Magnus it sounded perfect and Alec felt himself preening even as he realised that he was completely gone for the man. There was nothing he was going to be able to do about it.

Alec hadn't intended to kiss Magnus.

Magnus had walked down the corridor towards him, somehow looking even more handsome than the day before, and it was as if something else took over his body. Before he knew it, he had pulled him into a storage cupboard by his lapels and then stood face to face with him, surrounded by cleaning supplies.  
  
After he'd done so, he wasn't sure what he was going to do next. He wanted to kiss Magnus, but his training kicked in and he realised this was a complete breach of protocol.

Magnus cut through all of Alec's running thoughts by walking forwards, cupping his hands around Alec's face and leaning in for a chaste kiss. When he pulled away, he stared at Alec's lips, as if he was surprised that they had just been on his own. He started to say something, to apologise, to back away, but then Alec moved.

Alec pushed Magnus back slowly into the opposite wall, then crowded into his personal space, kissing him passionately.

Magnus wanted to be embarrassed by the moan that fell from his lips, but he found that as this was one of the best kisses he had ever had, it was worth the noise. He felt Alec smile against his lips as they continued the kiss.  
  
After a period of time that neither of the men knew, Alec reluctantly pulled away.  
  
"We should probably..." Alec said, realising that he'd left his post to be kissed senseless in a cupboard.

"Yes, of course. Do I need to make a coming out of the closet joke, or shall we just accept that it's implied?" Magnus asked, chuckling.

~~~  
  
After that, it was secret meetings in empty rooms, hurried times spent together, silly notes left for each other in pigeon holes and snatches of conversations in between official duties. It was at once exciting and deeply infuriating.

“Conference Room D?” Magnus said, walking into the room and locking it behind him. “Bit on the nose, don't you think?”

Alec smiled in a way that Magnus only saw directed at him, and shrugged.

“It's a very important meeting, _Your Excellency_ Bane.” Alec said, walking towards him and pulling him in by his lapels.

Magnus found himself smiling in kind, despite the silliness of Alec using his official title. He wrapped his hands around his partner's waist and pulled him in.

“Morning.” Alec said when they were face to face.

“Good Morning.” Magnus replied, kissing him softly.

They stayed like that for some minutes, content to just be with each other.

When they started to get more active, pulling each other close, hands wandering all over their clothes, wishing they could rub skin on skin, gasping in desire, Magnus finally pulled back.

"I have an office, you know."

Alec knew that he looked at the other man with shock, although after a moment, he realised that he shouldn't have been surprised. Of course the other man had an office, he didn't know why he hadn't thought about it before; but if Magnus had an office why the hell had they been sneaking around like naughty schoolchildren?

The question must have shown on Alec's face, because Magnus continued with a laugh.

"What? I was enjoying our little trists."

Alec rolled his eyes. "So, where's that office then?"

"Captain Lightwood! A nooner? How risqué of you."

" _Magnus._ " Alec said fondly, sounding exasperated but secretly loving the ridiculousness of the man in front of him.  
  
~~~  
  
The next few weeks involved not looking at each other like they wanted to rip each other's clothes off despite their desire to rip each other's clothes off.

The first time that Alec took Magnus to his own quarters, he spent the majority of their time together expecting his commanding officer to jump out from behind a curtain and start shouting disciplinary codes at him. As his CO was a man of sixty years old with balding hair and a belly that was growing due to his increasing time spent behind a desk, it wasn't doing much for his performance. Magnus noticed how distracted he was, but still did his best to perform well.

The second time it was better, and after that it was like they had always been together, two parts of the same soul meeting in ecstasy when they touched.

Occasionally, Magnus would stay with him over night, although they were careful not to let on what was going on. Diplomats loved to gossip and one or both of them would be reposted if it came out what was going on.

Alec wished that sometimes they could just wake up and rest and cuddle before the day started, but they always had to stagger their leaving times so as not to create suspicion.

The day that Alec woke to another cold and empty bed, he felt the smile he had woken up with fall from his face. This was a morning where Magnus had snuck out without saying goodbye, and he hated it.

When he finally opened his eyes, he saw a piece of paper on the pillow where Magnus had fallen asleep, his black hair framing his face. Alec definitely hadn't fallen asleep watching the way Magnus' beautiful eyes sparkled in the moonlight.  
  
_Alec,_

_That was_ _**much** _ _better than a closet._

_~Magnus_

Alec smiled, reading the short missive a few times more before he moved to get up...and the world shifted beneath him.

His immediate thought was 'earthquake' but it was followed by the reminder that he was not currently posted in an earthquake-prone country. The second time he felt the ground shift, he realised what was happening. Those were explosions.

The embassy was under attack.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Alec dressed in record time, flashbacks to the way he and other recruits needed to be ready at a moments notice during their training rushing through his head. He always dressed quickly. His entire adult life in the military ensured that, but he hadn't felt this frantic in a very long while. He tried very hard not to think the next portion of that thought, the _why_ of why he was so frantic.

As he was tying his shoelaces, he heard another explosion, this one sounding closer. There was silence apart from what he assumed was falling masonry until he heard sounds that he would _never_ be able to mistake. Gunshots.

He heard two different sorts and that was the point at which he knew that the explosions weren't easily explained away. It wasn't a gas leak or a structural inconsistency of the building. He heard the tell-tale sounds of handguns, which would likely be the private security guards that bulked out the security at the embassy. The fact that it was him and a bunch of rent-a-cops was something that he had questioned multiple times with his superiors, but they had continuously explained that they needed a commanding officer if anything happened, and that person would be him. He couldn't fault them for wanting to keep as many troops as possible in areas of the world where they were needed, but he did often think that he was just babysitting.

The second set of shots came from semi-automatic guns. He knew that the security team didn't have access to them, the key around his neck was the only one in the embassy for the armoury. It was part of a three-factor authentication with his fingerprint and an 8-digit code. There was no way that those guards got into that room, which meant that there were other people in the embassy, other people with guns, other people shooting.

Alec knew that he needed to get out of the room carefully, make sure that he wasn't seen, get intelligence so that he could work out just how dire the situation was and then he needed to... _Magnus_.

He nearly tripped over his own feet as he walked towards where he had laid out his gun the night before. Magnus. Where was Magnus? Was he even now being shot at? Was he injured? Was he dead? He shook his head in order to try and dislodge the thoughts from it, but now that they were in there he found that he couldn't knock them free. Just the thought that Magnus might be hurt made him stall. All of his training disappeared from his brain as if a bubble had burst.

He needed to find him. Now.   
  
~~~  
  
The corridors outside his rooms were empty and the embassy was quiet. That would have been enough to tell Alec that something was wrong, even before the continued gunfire and distant screams that he could hear.

He ducked into one of the many offices lining the corridor he’d turned into after walking for several minutes. The embassy was a maze even on a good day. Under pressure, he found that he was having difficulty remembering exactly which of the identical corridors he was in.

Picking up the phone, he would have been surprised if he'd heard a dial tone, but he foolishly wished for one anyway. If he'd decided to take down a building, the first thing he would have cut would have been the comms too.

He wished that Underhill was here. There wasn't a piece of technology that he couldn't fix. Alec swore that once he jury rigged a radio out of a coat hanger and a tin can. On the one hand he knew that it was probably unlikely that was true, but on the other hand, they were in the middle of the desert from hell and he had no idea how he'd managed to get their transmission out. It made him smile, thinking about his old unit and he wished they were here. If he had the six man team with him, they'd solve whatever the hell this was and then laugh about it later. This, being here on his own – because he worried that it was unlikely that the guards were still alive after the firefight, he hadn't heard any hand gun shots in a while – was not something he knew how to cope with. Being part of a team was one of the things he loved about being in the military. He wasn't a spy who could work without a safety net, he was a team player without the group dynamics that made him an asset. He was resigned to the fact that he was going to get people killed. Knowing that was far different than accepting it though.

Dropping the phone back into its cradle seemed to help his run on thoughts. The slight clatter brought him back to the room, even as he was kicking himself for making a noise. He strained his ears to listen, but he didn't hear any running footsteps or shouts that meant he had been given away.

He got to the surveillance room after ten fraught minutes of zigzagging down the halls of the embassy, occasionally having to duck into alcoves to avoid the men who were patrolling. By the time he got there a feeling of unease had settled in his gut. He hadn't seen any embassy or security staff and was beginning to think he might be the only one free. That complicated things.

When he arrived at the surveillance room, he knew that he would be going into the situation blind. By design, the room had a heavy door without a window. It was one of the areas in the embassy that could be defended in case of an attack and its strategic importance was not lost on him. He would be supremely surprised if there wasn't at least one person in there, one person he was going to have to kill or incapacitate.

Alec was a soldier, he'd been a soldier for a long while, and over that time he'd had to kill people. He'd had to kill people who were hurting others, he'd had to kill people who were trying to hurt him and his squad, he'd had to kill people who were going to hurt someone immediately and he had to act. What he _hadn't_ done was kill someone in cold blood before, and he suddenly realised he wasn't sure whether he could.

He shook his head against the thought. That line of thinking wouldn't get him anywhere. If this was a hostile situation, he was going to have to make some tough choices. The likelihood of it being 'kill or be killed' was very high, especially if it was him against any number of hostiles.

He shook his head again. This was exactly why he was going to the surveillance room. He needed intel, and the only way he was going to get it was from the frequent cameras scattered around the embassy. He would have to do what he had to do, and deal with the emotional fall out later. It wasn't like he slept that well anyway.

Listening at the door didn't do any good. It was reinforced and sound proof. He was going to have to get into the room and deal with whatever happened when he got there. He'd been on missions before with zero intel and a commanding officer telling them to go in anyway, he could do this. He just didn't _want_ to do this.

Alec raised his gun, punching in the code for the surveillance room as he did so. He opened the door quickly, hoping that would give him the element of surprise. For a split second, he thought it had worked. Until he felt a blinding pain on his arm and his gun dropped due to his spasming nerves. He sent up a curse to the sky, and started to grapple with the man in front of him.

The man was shorter than him, but he was stocky and seemed to have more arms than the standard human. Every time Alec attempted to get free of him, he was grasped again. The man was good at hand to hand combat, better than him, and Alec had this crazy thought that he was going to lose. He was going to fail at the first hurdle. He had the lives of about fifty people in his hands and he was going to fail. He was going to get these people killed because he wasn't strong enough.

_He wasn't strong enough._

That thought seemed to super charge his muscles and he stopped overthinking things, stopped thinking about _how_ to fight and just fought. He let his muscle memory kick in and before he knew it, the man was on the floor and he had his arm across his neck.

Alec bore down on the man, pinning him to the floor with his legs and putting just enough pressure on the man's neck to give the illusion of threat. He still wasn't sure whether he was going to kill the man or not. The tactician in him told him to do so, it was one less hostile. It also meant that if another person came into the room it would still be one on one. And yet…

The man must have seen the indecision in Alec's eyes because he started to laugh, the sound alien in the quiet of the room that had until that point only been broken by their laboured breathing.

“Shut up!” Alec said, trying to buy himself time to think. “How many of you are there?”

The man just spat to the side, bringing his head up into Alec's arm, causing a choked sound to come out of his throat.

It was that that did it for Alec. Seeing this man torture himself in order to tell Alec to fuck off was enough to make him realise that he wasn't going to get anything out of him. He could talk to him for hours and nothing would come of it...and he didn't have hours.

Alec looked down at the man again, at the hatred in his eyes and the drive he had and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that if the roles were reversed, he'd have been killed minutes ago.

“You won't win.” The man said, just before Alec reached down with his other hand, grasped his neck and snapped it with a practised ease that he wished he didn't have.

Alec sat back afterwards breathing heavily and staring at the ma...the _body_ in front of him. He gave himself a minute to grieve the loss of another part of his soul.

”Get it together, Lightwood.” Alec said, his voice sounding suspiciously like his mother's.

He turned to the expansive console that covered the whole of one of the walls in the large room. There were screens everywhere and more buttons than he knew what to do with. It was daunting, but it was a necessity, so he stomped on the voice inside him that told him he wasn't good at any of this, that this wasn't going to give him any usable intel, and instead set to work.

It took him several minutes to work out the controls for the cameras, and when he did, he just ignored all of the other buttons and worked those.

As far as he could tell, all of the hostages – and they _were_ hostages, there was no doubt about that now, if the men in guns and terrified faces of embassy staff were enough to go by – were huddled in the main atrium.

The atrium was as large as it sounded. An immense space of architectural excellence that Alec assumed was built to show visitors that the US was opulent, powerful and worth working with. It hadn't occurred to him before, but the arrogance inherent in the décor was now striking, especially considering the embassy wasn't even one of strategic importance.

He looked at every single face of the assembled people, but he couldn't see Magnus anywhere. A sense of creeping dread washed over him at that.   
  
He turned to another screen, looking at an empty hallway, and slammed his hand into the button to rotate the video feed so hard he almost winced in pain. The images were flitting by so quickly he could barely look at them, the empty corridors seeming to merge into one long failure. _Not Magnus. Not Magnus. Not Magnus._

Then finally, blessedly, after what seemed like hours, he saw Magnus stumble as he was pushed, hands secured behind his back. The vision alone was enough to make Alec's blood boil and his finger almost pushed the button again due to its spasming. He stopped it just in time, pulling his hand back as if it had been scalded.  
  
“Magnus.” Alec whispered reverently, stroking a hand down the screen in front of him. He watched his partner get pushed down a hallway, clearly not walking quickly enough for the people who were pushing him.

Alec watched him until he was out of sight, then switched to the next view point and the next, as if the very act of watching Magnus move would keep him safe.

When Magnus was in the relative safety of the atrium with all of the other hostages, Alec went back to what he had originally been intending to do, working out how many men he was dealing with. He was frustrated to find that his original counts had been way off. He was compromised, and he knew it. Being this worried about one person had caught him off guard and overwhelmed him completely. No amount of training would have prepared him for the helplessness he currently felt. He was furious with himself and if this were any other mission he'd have had the person recused immediately, but this _wasn't_ any other mission. As far as he could tell, he was it. Looking at the massacre, and really there was no other word for it, of the security guards where the original explosion had happened proved that.

Alec Lightwood against the world. _Fuck_. Must be Thursday.  
  
~~~  
  
Alec took all the intel that he could from the cameras. He counted over a dozen hostiles, heavily armed in the atrium, and they'd be fools not to have at least half as many more trying to round up people in other areas of the embassy. That will have been how they got Magnus. He had probably been in his office when it all started. He supposed he needed to count himself lucky that they hadn't managed to get to his quarters before he'd woken up, if he'd been rounded up with everyone else it wouldn't have done anyone any good.

With reluctance, he pulled his vision away from where it had settled once he'd learnt everything. He didn't know how long he had been staring at the atrium again, staring at the way Magnus was glaring at their captors, hoping against hope that Magnus didn't say anything, didn't draw any attention to himself. It was long enough that he kicked himself. He had to think about everyone in this embassy not just Magnus. Everyone in there was someone's partner, someone's sister, someone's son. He didn't have the market cornered on worry. He needed to stop being so goddamn selfish and get on with it.

That line of thinking got him over half of the way to the server room that needed to be destroyed. Sensitive data would be kept in there, and there were protocols to follow. Added to which, he could take down the security cameras in there. He wouldn't be able to see anything, but then again, neither would they.

The distinctive sound of a gunshot got him running full tilt back towards the surveillance room, his feet pounding on the ground, no thought for stealth. He'd kick himself for it later, but right now he only had one thought that was pounding through his body with every beat of his heart. _Not Magnus. Please, not Magnus._

It wasn't likely that there would be a hostage situation at an embassy, but it also wasn't unheard of. There had been many in recent history, and because of that, the US _did_ train them for it. It was as a result of that that Alec knew possibly the most terrifying piece of knowledge he had ever heard at this precise moment in time.

He knew that standard operating protocol for this sort of thing was for the terrorists to kill one hostage to keep the rest of them in line. They’d want to keep as many as possible of course, but shooting one as an example to bring obedience to the others was a staple for hostage takers everywhere. He'd heard the shot and all other thought had gone from his mind.

What if that shot had been at Magnus? What if Magnus was bleeding out across the atrium floor? What if he'd never again see that disarming smile and ostentatious wardrobe? What if he was dead?

So he'd broken from all possible procedure and high tailed it back to the surveillance room so that he could check on his partner. The shaky breath he exhaled when he saw Magnus alive, but looking indignant at the men, a body far too close to him for comfort, is one he tried not to examine too hard.

_God. Just a few hostages to the left and he might_ _have lost him._

After that thought had managed to wheedle itself into his head, he deliberately looked away from the screen and straightened himself up, carefully exiting the room with far more safety than he had when he entered for the second time.

The walk back to the server room was uneventful, so thankfully the moment when he lost his head hadn't been noticed, which was something at least. Closing the reinforced door to the cool room seemed like a modicum of safety that he hadn't felt recently and he let himself rest his head against the door for a brief second whilst he collected his thoughts.

This wasn't like any battle he'd ever been embroiled in before and because of that he wasn't sure how to face it. Instead, he fell back on the protocol for this situation, allowed himself to get through this the only way he knew how.  
  
Mechanically, he typed his code into the locked box on the wall, pulling out an innocent looking flash drive which he knew was anything but. Plugging it into the server, he felt like something flashier should happen, like a beeping or a spark or _something_. All he heard was a ramping up in the processing power and the servers shutting down one by one. He knew that a computer program had gone in and deleted any pertinent information, as well as sent out a coded SOS. Someone now knew what had happened, and knew that _someone_ had been around to set this off. That made him pathetically grateful, like he wasn't alone anymore.

Alec knew that the surveillance systems were on a different server, one that hadn't shut down. They were like that deliberately, mostly so that they couldn't be hacked remotely, broken by a virus, or otherwise tampered with. Normally the security system would be an asset, but not in this instance.

He reached for the switch that would initiate the sequence for purging the surveillance data, as well as the minute to minute surveillance program. Nothing would work after he did this. Which is what he wanted. This was the whole point of being here...and yet.

He tried to ignore the voice in the back of his head that told him that if he switched this off and purged all the data, he wouldn't be able to check on Magnus, that he was making a mistake. Yes, he wouldn't be able to see Magnus, but the enemy wouldn't be able to see _him_ as he tried to take them down; and as much as he hated himself for thinking it, that was what was important right now. Alec was also well aware that the temptation to sit in the surveillance room and keep his partner in his sights at all times would be too strong for him to cope with. He was well and truly compromised and there was only one thing he could do about that. _Stand up straight. Do your duty. Save as many Americans as you can._ The thought made him feel a little sick. Every time he closed his eyes he could see Magnus' smile, and the idea that he couldn't put him above all else felt like he was doing him a disservice...but he couldn't think like that. He had to be strong. If he saved everyone, he saved Magnus too.

He gave the server one last touch, as if that would show his devotion to the man who he'd lost sight of due to his duty. It wasn't the soft caress of skin on skin, but it was what he had right now. He couldn't stop himself being grateful for that non-touch. It was lame, but it was reality.

Already plotting a route in his head to the armoury, he left the now defunct server room. He knew that the enemy would try and get in there, try to get things back up and running, but it was impossible. There was nothing there to turn back on, it was all gone.

Turning down the corridor in the direction of the weapons that only he would be wielding, he once more wondered what he had done to be in this situation. 'Soft posting' his _ass_.

Apparently he'd been deployed to another war after all.

 

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this has taken such a bloody long time to get to! Hopefully I can get back to a better posting schedule now. :D

The first altercation Alec had with a goon could have gone better.

It had been a long time since he'd fought hand to hand, and these guys clearly knew their stuff, which was unfortunate. He finally managed to get the drop on one of them, only for the man to pull a knife on him. The fight then got more fraught as he attempted to dodge the blade, and fight hand to hand at the same time, which was something he again hadn't done for a long time. Visions of training at the barracks flashed in front of his mind, but this wasn't fake blades and camaraderie. This was real weapons and a fight for his life. Grabbing the man's wrist to render his weapon useless, Alec elbowed up and behind him, hitting the man in the ribs and giving him a chance to break free from his grip. 

The fight went on, and after a feint from the man in front of him, Alec found himself slammed into a wall, the movement knocking the breath out of him briefly. Unfortunately, the man was still holding on to his arm, and he felt the muscles tear and heard the sickening pop of his shoulder coming free from its socket. He heard a muted cry from his mouth, a grunt to acknowledge the pain and a gasp paired together. Years of having to stay quiet in hostile situations meant he very rarely actually made a cry when he was hurt, in fact he could count on one non-damaged hand the number of times he'd given their position away because he'd been so badly hurt he couldn't contain his pain.

Despite only having the use of one arm, Alec managed to incapacitate his opponent, forcing them to the ground and choking him to death with his leg across his throat, being unable to snap his neck like the last assailant, owing to his damaged shoulder.

When the man was dead, Alec stood, starting to undo his belt from his pants, knowing that he was going to need it. He couldn't pull the man to a hidden place, so he was going to have to hide to put his shoulder back in. In case someone came searching, he needed to be quiet.

He found a disused cupboard, which he ironically realised would have been a great place to hide a body. He stopped himself from chuckling at that, knowing that the pain from his arm was making him feel a little loopy and he couldn't afford to lose focus right now.

Alec put the leather of his belt between his teeth, rested his hurt right arm (and of course, it had to be his right arm didn't it?) palm first on the wall. He took in a deep breath through his nose, bit down on the belt between his teeth and closed his eyes. Moving his left arm to his chest, he pressed with the heel of his hand into the joint. 

Then he pushed. 

The sound that his shoulder made when it popped back into his socket sounded loud, but he knew from experience that you'd have to be standing very close to someone to actually hear it. He wasn't worried about that. What he was worried about was the short grunt he'd made when it had gone back in. Even despite the belt, he'd made a noise, and he worried that meant he would be discovered imminently. 

Distantly, he was starting to hear shouts. The body had been found.

~~~

It had been at least a day, but Alec wasn't sure how many hours. That thought worried him more than many others he'd been having recently, because that meant he was slipping. He had no routine at all, snatches of sleep in areas he deemed were safe, despite there not really being any safe places in the entire building, meant that he often had to check his watch to work out what time it was, and he hadn’t had to do that since basic training. 

He'd taken down many enemy combatants, he thought he was at eight, but it didn't seem to be making a dent in the hostiles. Either they were being replenished from somewhere, using an entrance into the embassy that would previously not have been there, probably meaning the areas surrounding the embassy were also in enemy control, and he was therefore in far more trouble than he originally thought; or his initial recon had been woefully inadequate. Either way, he hadn’t done his job properly. Either way, he was a piss-poor hope that these innocent people had.

It took him far longer than it should have to realise that he could cut the power to parts of the embassy, allowing him to get the edge on the people who wouldn’t know the layout as well as he did. 

Moving towards the basement, he kept as much to the shadows as he possibly could, ducking into alcoves or between doorways if he heard anybody move. He was lucky though, not coming across any more people that he needed to kill or incapacitate, and that thought made him feel at once good and bad. It was good that he didn’t need to hurt any more people than was strictly necessary; but he wasn’t sure if that meant he was making a dent in the opposing forces, or if they were just getting more savvy to his tactics. It was likely he wouldn’t know until it was too late.

The basement door’s keypad was dark when he got there. He worried that it might have been a trap, but the benefits of knocking out the power in the building in the long run far outweighed the prospect of having to do more fighting in the light. He eased the door open carefully and slowly walked down the stairs, making sure to tread as lightly as possible.

The circuit breaker looked the same as all other circuit breakers he had ever seen, only larger. He assumed that this was because there were so many different systems in place in the building, so many different circuits that needed their own safety switch. He flipped off the switches individually first, before throwing the main breaker at the end; that way, even when someone came to check on the situation, it would take them longer to restart the grid. It may only be precious seconds, but that could be the difference between life or death in a situation like this.

Alec had only been back on the ground level for mere moments before he heard the internal tannoy that served the majority of the embassy squawk to life. He ducked and covered, dropping to the floor out of mere instinct. It took him a few moments to realise that he wasn’t being imminently attacked or spoken to in person, but hailed over the loud speakers.

“This is getting tiresome, soldier!” A man’s clipped voice called. 

Alec’s blood ran cold. _How had they known he was a soldier?_

“We know there is only one of you. You must be tired, creating all of this chaos. Though I think perhaps you have misunderstood the situation. There is but one of you, and many of us…and we have no compunction killing hostages to get our way.”

Alec heard the sound of a gunshot echo around the embassy, followed by a scream. He didn’t know whether it had been a warning and a scream of fright, or whether it had been an execution, but either way it was on him.

~~~

Magnus heard the words that the man had said and knew that the information would be hurting Alec. Alec was always one who wanted to look after other people and not hurt them, it was one of the things that Magnus loved about him. He knew that Alec would be beating himself up over the fact he hadn’t done more, would be worrying about how his status as a military serviceman could have caused more harm than good.

The guilt curdled in Magnus’ gut. He knew how the terrorists knew who Alec was. They would have found the information out from his office.

He thought he might be sick.

“You!” The man shouted at Magnus. “On your feet!”

Magnus stood carefully, his head held high. If he was going out then he was going to do it with dignity. He wasn’t going to give these men the satisfaction of seeing his fear.

When he had got to his feet, a man who screamed ‘lackey’ reached for his hands and secured them painfully behind his back with what felt like sharp plastic, then kicked his knees out from under him again.

“Ten minutes, soldier! Ten minutes or people start to die.”

~~~

The absurdity of the situation was not lost on Magnus. He was on his knees, hands zip-tied behind his back, a gun pointed at his head and yet still here he was, worried about Alec, worried about what might happen to him. He was in serious trouble and there wasn't anything that he could do to help him. He was about to die and all he could think of was him.

He had no doubt that Alec was somewhere close by, assessing the situation. He wouldn’t have been able to resist trying to rescue as many people as possible, even if it hurt or killed him in the process. The man was too noble for his own good and Magnus’ heart hurt just thinking about a world without him in it.

“Come out, or I kill a hostage!” The man said, hauling Magnus to his feet again and then pushing him down to the ground in front of him. “Come out, or this man dies!”

“Don't do it!” Magnus shouted, earning himself a punch to the face which toppled him over.

The man righted his hostage again, not caring that he was now bleeding from his lip, it wouldn't matter in a second anyway. He was merely a means to an end. He would kill as many hostages as was needed to get his point across. There was a man in the embassy killing his comrades and there was nothing he wouldn't do to stop him.

Alec had managed to get around so he could see over the balcony into the main area, and he shimmied up the balustrade so that he could see over, dropping back down after he had seen what was happening. There were still the bulk of hostages sitting down, their hands tied behind them, some of them crying, some of them sitting quietly, some of them leaning against their colleagues and friends. Men patrolled around the area, holding their guns with practised ease, but it was what was in the centre of the room that made his heart skip a beat.

Magnus, rumpled but still somehow looking as gorgeous as he had the first time as he'd seen him, was on his knees. There was a pistol pointed at his head and he had blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. He still looked defiant though and Alec had to stifle a smile.

“3...”

“DON'T DO IT!” Magnus said, knowing full well that Alec would be considering it. He was too noble for his own good, and it might get him killed.

Alec knew that he should be objective, knew that he was supposed to think of the many and not the few, knew that the country had a policy not to negotiate with terrorists, but all of that went out of the window. He couldn't see Magnus, this amazing, intelligent, loving man extinguished by rebels at the ass end of nowhere. The world was a much better place with Magnus Bane in it, and he couldn't deprive it of that, even if he had to be the price.

“2...”

“It's not worth it!”

The thing was, it was worth it. Keeping a man like Magnus in the world was worth it. He would do so much good as diplomat, as a human being. He was too important to the world to leave it.

“1...”

“Alec, so help me. I will hunt you down if you...” The cold metal on his forehead stopped him. 

This was it. He was about to die. 

_I love you._

He hadn't managed to say it out loud; it was too soon...but not soon enough. He should have said it. He should have been brave. Now he would never get the chance.

“Last chance, soldier.”

Alec took a deep breath, tried to remember that this wasn't the right course of action, and then said fuck it and did the complete opposite of his training anyway.

“I'm here!” He shouted, raising his hands above the parapet first, before standing very slowly. “I'm here.”

“Alec, no.” Magnus said quietly, and Alec didn't think he'd heard anyone sound so broken.

“Come down, slowly,” the man said, and cocked the gun against Magnus' forehead, “or he dies.”

Alec threaded his way down the obstacles he had created on the stairs, keeping his hands clearly above his head, his fingers laced around the back of his head, showing he wasn't touching anything, wasn't going to try anything.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, he had his hands roughly pulled from his head, and wrenched painfully behind his back by one of the rebels, a tight zip tie completing the ensemble. He winced inwardly at the way that it stretched his shoulders.

Once the soldier was restrained, one man still standing behind him, holding his upper arms tightly, securing him more fully, the leader walked towards him, looking him up and down. The man was tall, lithe, but clearly with a core of steel. He screamed US Marine. No wonder he had caused them so much trouble. He punched him square in the face. The man in front of him didn't wince, but the other hostage behind him gasped.

“You have been causing us a lot of trouble, soldier.”

Alec smiled. That had rather been the point.

“You've got me now, you don't need to hurt any of the hostages.”

The head rebel looked Alec up and down again and he tried not to squirm under the scrutiny. The man was clearly trying to make a decision.

“No, I think we'll kill a hostage anyway. Just to remind you who's in charge here.”

“What? No!” Alec said, struggling against the men holding him. This hadn't been the idea at all. He couldn't have failed Magnus so fully, despite his sacrifice. If he'd known that, he'd have...no. He'd have done exactly the same thing.

Alec was pushed over to the main area of the room and had his knees kicked out from beneath him, thudding to the floor on them right in front of Magnus. He searched his face, checking he was okay, looking at him, trying to tell him all the words he wanted to, without having to say anything at all. 

_I'm sorry._

Alec felt the cold circle of the gun barrel at his temple, but he didn't move, just kept his eyes on Magnus, trying to tell him what he'd wanted to, but had been too scared to say. 

_I love you._

It had been too soon to say it, but he wished he had. Now he would never get the chance.

“This is foolish.” Magnus said, looking up at the rebel leader when he cocked the gun.

“Oh?”

“You want something from this hostage situation. You're going to need leverage. You've got us, and perhaps they'll try to get us with force, perhaps some of you will die in the raid, perhaps not. But I'm telling you now, if you kill a US serviceman you will _all_ die and you won't get what you want. They will level this building to avenge him.”

Alec knew that he was right, but he wished that Magnus would stop talking. He was drawing attention to himself, making him the target, and that was exactly the opposite of what he had wanted when he'd given himself up.

“Magnus...” Alec warned. _God, why wouldn't he shut up?_

“You'll shoot yourselves in the foot if you kill him.”

“Is that so?” The man said, nodding at his compatriot, who moved his gun back to Magnus' head. “Well, I did say I was going to kill a hostage, I guess you'll do.”

“No!” Alec said, struggling against the hands holding his shoulders down. 

“You did this, soldier. Your actions made this happen. His blood is on your hands. I am clean.”

“No,” Alec said again, rapidly searching for a way out of this, a way that he could stop this horror from occurring, “no. This is foolish.”

The head rebel laughed, clearly amused by the men bargaining for their lives. “Oh, and why is that?”

“Because he's your negotiator. He's a diplomat. He's your best bet in getting a fair deal out of all of this. He can negotiate on your behalf. He does that for a living. It will be like having your own personal lawyer.”

“You're a diplomat?” He asked Magnus, reaching for his lanyard and yanking it from around his neck. He peered at it for a moment before throwing it to the side.

Alec saw the man nod to someone on the other side of the room, but had only a split second before he realised what was going to happen. The gunshot rang out loud in the space, and a man who Alec knew in passing fell to the floor, his colleague screaming when the blood splattered her blouse and the man fell across her legs. Some people in the room started crying.

Alec hated himself for feeling relieved that it wasn't Magnus.

The tableau stayed like that for several tense moments, with Magnus and Alec staring at each other, trying to say everything they had wanted to, without actually talking.

When Alec was yanked to his feet, and pulled away from the other hostages. Magnus knew he twitched, and didn't like to think about whether or not the rebels had seen it, whether they knew that there was more to them saving each other than the necessity of the situation.

Alec was thrown through a doorway and followed by two men all within a few moments. The last look over his shoulder was one of such naked love that Magnus knew that if anyone had been watching closely they would have seen it. He knew it was all for him, was meant as a way to support, but Magnus couldn't help but wonder if it was the last look he was going to get from his partner.

Magnus wanted to go to him, wanted to check he was okay, wanted to just be with him, wanted to be one of the nameless and faceless employees who were able to huddle with their friends, wanted to be someone who the rebels didn't care about at all. That wasn't something he was going to be allowed to have and he found himself feeling bitter about his job role for the first time since he had been honoured with it.

“You!”

Magnus was distracted from his thoughts by the large knife that was advancing on him. He wondered whether he was going to be killed regardless of what had just happened; whether Alec himself was being killed right now; whether they would take their final breaths together; and whether he'd been denied that final goodbye that he so desperately craved. He didn't need to worry though, because the knife was used to undo the bonds encircling his wrists, not stab him in any number of the horrific ways his brain had supplied.

“Come.” The man said, walking off towards the hallway of meeting rooms that Magnus had been in more times than he could count. 

Magnus felt a hysterical laugh bubbling up in his throat at the idea that these men should have made an appointment with his aide, but he suppressed it. Laughing was probably not the best thing he could be doing in this situation. He pushed himself up off the ground and followed the man, wincing when he heard the unmistakeable sound of fists hitting flesh when he walked past the room that Alec had been taken into. Alec was being hurt because of him, and the knowledge was almost too much to bear.

The room they entered was one that he'd entered numerous times. 

He'd had good meetings, he'd had tedious meetings, he'd had meetings that made him question his loyalty to his job, he'd had meetings that made him want to say 'hang patriotism, I'm out'. He'd even had a 'meeting' with Alec after a particularly fraught day. He'd pushed him up against the cabinet, kissed him passionately and broken some of the tea set they used for visiting dignitaries. Neither of them had cared about that one bit.

“Sit.” The man said, gesturing at one of the chairs about half way down the conference table.

Magnus looked at the man speaking, but also took in the man holding the AK-47 standing by the door. He didn't know why he did, it wasn't as if he could somehow access ninja training and take down the two men in the room, but he couldn't help looking as the only door to his escape was blocked.

The man roughly pulled Magnus around the side of the table and threw him down into the chair he had gestured at. “I said 'sit'!”

Magnus nearly fell off the chair in his effort to right himself from the move. It would have been highly undignified and despite the situation, being a diplomat was at least 70% looks and mannerisms. He just needed to look at this as just another assignment. Just another way to get two parties to talk. He could do that.

“Call.”

“What?” Magnus said, looking up in confusion. 

“Call your government.” The man said, gesturing at the phone down in front of him. “Talk.”

Magnus reached for the phone.

The man moved his pistol to the back of Magnus' head and cocked it, making Magnus' blood run cold for the second time in as many hours.

“And no games.”

Magnus held his hands up. “No games.”

The gun’s safety was replaced, the noise making Magnus sag from relief.

“Good.”

Magnus wasn't entirely sure what he was going to say when the phone was answered. Sure, they were trained for this sort of thing, and when they got into the negotiating portion of it, he was going to be in his element, but the beginning part, the part where he was going to have to talk with a secretary before he got through to the State Department or perhaps even the Situation Room and the people he really needed to talk to about this issue, that part he wasn't sure about.

“Thank you for calling the State Department, Diplomat number?”

“7854-c.” Magnus said, reeling off the number that he could probably speak in his sleep.

“Great, how may I direct your...” The woman trailed off, the sounds of her typing drawing to a close. 

“Exactly.” Magnus said kindly to the poor woman who clearly didn't know what else to say. 'Sorry you've embroiled in a hostage situation' sounded trite, no matter how sincere it was.

“Er...”

“Direct line to the Secretary of State, I think.” Magnus prompted gently.

“Oh! Right. Yes. Of course, I'll just...”

Magnus was greeted with the periodic beep of being on hold at the State Department. No hold music for the government apparently. They could spend money on all sorts of frivolous things and get away with it, but heaven forfend they actually make a prolonged period of time on hold pleasant. Considering how many times he and everyone he knew spent on hold with them, you'd think they'd have done something by now. Absently he wondered whether there was a comment box somewhere where he could request it. If he got out of this alive.

The phone connected and he announced himself.

“Magnus Bane, Sir.”

“What do they want?”


End file.
